What To Shoot? Different Genres, Styles And Ideas

There will come a time when you'll run out of ideas about what pictures to take, or the style to take them in. You'll have visited all the local haunts, taken dozens of pics inside your house, and think "What can I do next?".

I gathered together a few different genres and styles of photography to maybe help you on your way and give you some new ideas.

You could argue that there as many different styles of photography as photographers taking pictures - but there are some rough genres, so have fun mixing and matching to find out what you enjoy doing. I'll try to illustrate examples with my photo's, so please forgive their quality!

Don't forget to challenge yourself and do something new, step out of your comfort zone and learn a new technique, whether it be in camera or in post processing.

Landscapes

My favourite subjects at the moment, but why not try and put a spin on it, with a black and white treatment,

or try a different perspective - avoid the sky!

Try the beach...

From a different angle?

Sunsets are always good.

Maybe go black and white?

Take shots from a building...

Or of buildings...

Maybe Landmarks?

Macro. A whole world of possibilities. First, the ubiquitous flower shot:

How about a bit abstract?

Or some other interest?

A different background?

Insects?

Objects?

Still Life - Take inspiration from painters.

Or everyday objects.

People. Close-ups.

Or as part of the scene,

Play with shutter-speeds. Fast:

Slow:

Depth of Field. Small:

Big:

Animals. The hard to find:

And next doors cat...

There's a world of possiblities out there. Take inspiration from other photographers, try to recreate what they've done so that skill-set is added to your arsenal. Shoot as often as possible, and enjoy seeing the world from a different perspective.

Thanks, Rob.

Using Flickr (And deviantArt) To Improve Your Photography

We're lucky to be Photographers today - cheap cameras that can take unbelievable shots. Unlimited photographs with digital storage. Anyone around the world can see and comment on your images through photo-sharing sites like Flickr and deviantArt.

But how can we use them to improve our Photography?

This is what Flickr considers to be my most interesting Photo (don't ask me how it decides!):

This is my photo with the most "favourites" on DeviantArt:

Murky Waters by ~scalespeeder on deviantART

I enjoy sharing my work on Flickr and dA. I like receiving feedback, comments and "favourites", but how has it helped my photography?

I think of Flickr and dA as a finishing point in my digital work-flow at this point. I go out, try and take the best photo's I can, so that I can upload them to show to other people. I really enjoy and love taking Photographs for myself, but I get great satisfaction from looking at the finished product for other people to share. I want other people to look at my shots and evoke some sort of response. It may be "Wow! What a great photo!", or "How did he do that!", or "That makes me feel happy / sad", or even "I'd like that to be hanging on my wall."

I don't achieve this every-time, far from it, I acknowledge that I'm a beginner and have much to learn, but that desire to share my work, for others to appreciate my view of the world through Photography, drives me on to get better at what I do, and share that knowledge with others.


Choose. by ~scalespeeder on deviantART

In order to get better you need to put your work in context, to see what others are doing, to get ideas from them, share techniques, gain inspiration and the drive to get out and "just shoot one more image...". Flickr is great for that.

The key for me, in Flickr, is to join lots of groups, participate in discussions, posts Photo's to the group Pools, but most importantly, really look at other peoples photographs! It sounds obvious, but too many times we get caught up in the technical side of photography - mega-pixels, sensors, the latest models, when really it's just about that image on the screen. You won't get better by buying the newest Canon or Nikon. You will get better by studying other peoples photos, seeing what you like (what you don't) and using that information to guide you in your own art.

Art? That's right. Photography is an art-form. I know people argue that its about capturing real life, but it's not. Real life is your eyes looking at a scene. In order to produce a photo, the light has to bounce off a subject, pass through a lens which distorts it turning 3d into 2d, be analysed and interpreted by a sensor, edited on a computer, and displayed on a screen (or paper) that is nothing like looking at something for real. You could say that if you don't edit your images then they're true to life, but the camera has already interpreted the scene, put it's own "spin" on what it sees, as you have, with your choice of subject, composition and light. You're making art.

To become better artists we need to develop our eye - to be able to envision what we want to create before we press the shutter. We can help ourselves achieve this by making sure we understand how to do this technically, but also by understanding what is possible - by looking at other peoples photographs.

Flickr has thousands of groups, all sorts of different photographers, from people sharing their snap-shots, to pros posting amazing images. Start off by looking at the explore page. Look at the different months - pick out photographs you like and "fave" them, so you've got them for reference later. Look at the photographers profile and add them as a contact, that way as they upload new stuff, if you're logged in, go to the home page and you'll see it.


Silence by ~scalespeeder on deviantART

Search for the group dedicated to your camera. Join. Add some images to the pool, look at the other photos. Taken a picture of a Swan? Search for a Swan or bird group, submit, and again, look at more pictures. Take time to look at the large sizes, to get a better view. When you find a photo you like, look at which groups its been submitted to - have a browse through, join and share.

Try and be critical - what do you like / dislike about a particular photograph? Whats the subject? How has it been composed? - Thirds, leading lines, etc. How has the photographer used the light available, or maybe they've used flash / studio lights / reflectors. You'll start to analyse photographs, so that the essential skill of pre visualisation will start to develop.

There are critique groups on Flickr - where you can submit your photographs for others to critique. Twip is a good one. Just treat comments with a pinch of salt, don't take them personally. Spend a lot of time in the critique discussion forums and see who seems to be posting the most constructive and informative comments, and listen to them.

Some groups run Photo assignments - they're great fun, and give you an excuse to go out and shoot, especially when you're running out of ideas. We do them over on this sites Flickr group.


Come Hither by ~scalespeeder on deviantART

I've talked a lot about Flickr, but deviantArt is worth looking at too. Check out the most popular photos on deviantArt, and prepare to be amazed. There's a more "arty" feel (surprise!) to this site - the mixing of painters, graphic artists, computer artists and photographers brings together some amazing pieces, and the quality is breath-taking.

I don't upload all my Flickr images to deviantArt, just my real favourites that I think could be classed as "arty". I haven't come across a real community there yet, but I've only been a member for a month or so.

Well, I'll stop rambling on now, join Flickr (and dA), share your best shots, and look at LOADS of photos!

Thanks, Rob.

Warning. Any photo you upload and display on the Internet can, and will, be stolen and used by other people. If you want to make money by selling your shots, only upload lo-res, small versions, and watermark them. Never upload personal photos that you wouldn't be happy for everyone in the world to see.

Basic Photo Editing With Photoshop Elements

Most photographs you take could be improved with a little bit of editing, or post processing, in Photo Editing Software. In this articles I'll be using Photoshop Elements to work on an image, just doing some small changes to try and make the photo more dynamic and have more impact.

This is the original image, have a good look at it:

The first stage of post processing is to look at your photograph and decide what you want to do with it. What's wrong? What do you want to look it to look like when you're finished?

Looking at this shot, I think its overexposed - that is I'm not happy with the brightness of the sky and the Warship at the back of the picture. It could do with some more contrast - the difference between the bright parts and the dark parts. It's also a bit wonky, the horizon needs straightening. The colours look at bit muted - I might want to brighten them a bit. I also fancy seeing what a black and white / sepia toned treatment would look like.

Lets get started!

First up, never work on the original image! Go into the folder where you've got your originals, create a new folder, call it "edits" then copy the image there. Don't drag and drop to move it, use "right-click", "copy", then go into the "edits" folder and "right-click" "paste".

Now fire up Photoshop Elements. I'm going to be using an older version, you may well find that the version you've got has a slightly different layout, or the desktop colours may not be the same. Don't worry, these techniques work on all versions, that's the beauty of Photoshop Elements!

(If you want to work on the same image, you can download it here)

A little explanation of the Photoshop Elements Desktop:

The long skinny bar on the left is the tool bar, where we can grab all sorts of cool things to work on our photo. The "palette" in the bottom right is the undo history, for going back to correct mistakes. The palette on the top right is the most important one - the layers palette.

If you have other boxes on the screen, hit the little "x"'s in their top right hand corner to get rid of them. If you can't see these three, simply click on "Window" near the top of the screen, and make sure "Tools", "Layers" and "Undo History" is ticked. You can then grab the top of the palette / tool bar and move it around to get the best view.

All the changes we're going to make to this image will be non destructive, and we do this by applying any edits via the layers palette. Imagine the photo on a table, and we're laying clear sheets of acetate on top of it, drawing and painting on that, not the original. This means we can go back and edit these acetates (layers) or just throw them away. This is important because we can always go back to the original image easily.

First edit will be to straighten up the image. To do this let's bring up the grid - press the "view" button at the top of the screen, and click on "grid". We want a horizontal line that's close to the edge of the water where it meets the land in the background, and another that's a vertical that we can line up with something that should be straight up. To make more grid-lines, click "edit", "preferences", "grid" and change the grid-line to every one cm.

Zoom in - by holding the "ctrl" button and pressing the "+" button on your keyboard, and get a bit closer. (To zoom out, hold "ctrl" and press "-").

It should look something like this:

Have a good look at where the water meets the land, and also the black vertical post (not the yachts masts - they could be rocking on the swell).

Lets rotate the image a fraction - press "Image", "rotate", "custom" (I've turned the grid off to make it clearer to see):

Put in a value of "0.5", "left", then hit OK.

Zoom back out ("Ctrl" with "-") until you can see the whole image. Does it look straighter? If it does, turn the grid off ("View", "Grid"). If it isn't, rotate it some more.

Don't worry about the white bits at the edge of the image - we'll sort them out later with our final crop.

Now's a good time to save our image in case our PC crashes. Click "File" at the top of the screen, then "save as". Make sure the format is .psd. This will save our photo and our layers so we can edit it later. Its also a "loss-less" format - if we save in .jpg our pic will degrade, and we'll lose the ability to edit the layers. Call it something different, like "wreck photoshop edit"", and save it in a folder where you'll find it later.

Now we're going to increase the overall contrast in the image with a "levels" adjustment layer. Click the little circle at the bottom of the layers palette (I've circled it in red):

Choose "levels" and you'll get this dialogue box up:

We're going to use this tool to add more contrast into the image, give it a little more "punch".

First up we're going to use the black-point eye-dropper to set the true black point in our photograph. Click on the little eye-dropper on the left of the layers dialogue, then click in the dark shadow under the wreck:

The picture should have changed, with the blacks getting a little blacker (!). If we had a true white point or grey point (that looked a little off-colour) you could use the other two eye-droppers to set them too. We haven't really got a true white or grey, but feel free to have a play. You can reset the levels control by holding "alt" on the keyboard, and you should see "cancel" in the dialogue box change to reset.

Now we're going to play around with the sliders:

The trick here is to be quite subtle. Push the left slider (the black point) to the right slightly. Push the middle slider (the mid-tones) to the right a bit too. That should be enough.

Click OK and Photoshop Elements with apply the layer adjustment. You can turn the layer off by clicking on the little eye to the left of the layer. Cool! If the layer is too strong, click on the little triangle next to the opacity setting, and move the slider:

Remember, layers are fully editable after the fact. If you want to change the levels adjustment layer, just double click on the little graph in the layer, and the dialogue box will open up.

Now's a good time to save as a .psd again.

Now we're going to darken the sky by adding a gradient adjustment layer. Make sure the bottom background layer is selected by clicking on it. Make sure your foreground and background colours are black / white by pressing "d" on your keyboard, then you may have to switch them by clicking on the little arrow by the foreground / background colours (at the bottom of the tools pallet on the left of your screen.) Then click on the little circle at the bottom of the layers pallet, and choose "gradient".

You should get a dialogue box that looks like this:

The Gradient we want is black to transparent, so if your one isn't, click in the dialogue box, next to where it says "Gradient". Another diaolgue box will appear, and just select ""Foreground to Transparent" (hold your mouse over the gradients to get the descriptions),then press ok.

Your screen should now look like the one above.

Click on the little box next to "Reverse".

Change the scale to about 60%, then click on the screen and "drag" the gradient up a bit, so your screen looks like this:

Now click "ok".

We're going to change the blend mode of this layer to darken the sky, so make sure the gradient layer is selected, then click on the blending mode drop down menu, and change it to "soft-light":

Our sky should now be a bit darker, with a little more detail in the clouds.

Now lets work on the colour.

Select the top layer in the layers palette, then click the little circle at the bottom of the palette, and choose "Hue / Saturation". When the dialogue box comes up, change the saturation to "+20", say OK.

You could play around a lot with hue / saturation, try out the other colour channels, just be subtle.

Right, lets crop it now. Click on the crop tool in the tools palette, and then make sure you click the "front image" button near the top of the screen, this will keep the aspect ratio the same. You don't have to, but it encourages you to frame your photos better when taking them:

To use the crop tool, just click in the top left corner, then drag to the bottom right. You can then click on the corners to move them in and out to get rid of the white bits. Hold the "ctrl" button down while dragging to stop the tool "snapping" to the edges. Zoom in if necessary.

Right, we could stop here, but at the beginning we said we wanted to try out a black and white / sepia treatment, so lets do that.

Select the top layer in the layers pallete, then click the little circle at the bottom, and create another levels adjustment layer. Simply press the ok button, don't do any adjustments.

Now click "Window" (at top of the screen), "Layer styles". Hunt through the layer styles pallete until you see "Sepia Tone". Simply drag and drop the sepian tone on top of the top layer in the layers pallete. Your image should now look like this:

If you want to, double click on the little graph in the top layer and play around with the levels a little more to maybe darken parts of the image, but I'm pretty happy with it now.

To really finish off this sepia treatment we're going to darken the edges with a very subtle vignette.

Click on the background (bottom) layer in the layers pallete.

Click on the "Rectangular Marquee Tool" in the tools pallette, and click near the top left hand corner, about a cm in, and drag to the bottom right hand corner:

Now click "select" (at the top of the screen), "feather", and enter 150pixels. This will round the corners off. Now click "select", "inverse".

Now click "layer" (at the top of the screen), "new", "Layer via Copy".

Remember that we can change the blend mode of this new layer? Make sure the new layer is selected, by clicking on it, then change the blend mode to "multiply":

Thats it! We're done with the editing, so lets save it as a .psd one last time (so we can edit it in the future if we like.)

Ok, so what do we want to do next? We could print it out - "File", "Print", but perhaps we want to use the image on the web, on our pc for a slideshow, or share it to Flickr?

If you're going to use it on your PC, or upload to Flickr, we want a good quality .jpg - so use "File", "Save As", and change the format to .jpg. When the dialogue box pops up, enter 12 for the quality, and that'll give you the top quality .jpg.

If you're going to use it on the web, in your blog or website, you'll want to optimise the photo, to make it much smaller. Click "File", "Save for Web", and you'll get this dialogue box:

Look for the settings for jpeg, and choose a medium quality for smaller file sizes. Coose your image size - 500 pixels is what I use, then press ok, and Photoshop will produce a nice, small file for you to upload.

We're done! Lets just have a look at a before and after pic:

I hope this post has helped you with your Elements work-flow. We've just gone into basics here, we haven't touched upon layer masks, sharpening or noise reduction, but just practice the basics first, then grab yourself a good book on Elements, and you'll be away!

Thanks, Rob.

Where To Shoot? Give Yourself An Assignment - The Photowalk!

If, like me, you're learning and want to improve your photography, one of the great challenges is to come up with different subjects to take pictures of.

In this short video I explain about Photowalks, and how I use them to practice and improve.

I tend to just think of a local place i haven't visited yet with my camera, then pack my gear and set off. As I'm walking around I'm looking for any chance of a good shot - ways of practicing my delivery of Subject, Composition and Light.

I'll take dozens and dozens of pictures on a Photowalk - yet only publish 3 to 10 on the web. My hit rate is normally about 1 good shot for every 10 I take - but that isn't time wasted. It's practice.

Funnily enough, I recently got a Film SLR, and because of all the practice I've put in, and the fact that I was ultra careful with each frame, I probably got about 15 keepers out of 24 - I've just got to do the same with my digital now!

Thanks, Rob.

Take Better Photographs: Subject, Composition, and Light!

We all want to improve our photography, and one the three main ingredients are what the subject of your photo is, how you compose it, what the light is like and how you use it.

In this article I'll look at some of my own images and show you how I have applied the photographic guidelines to improve my photo's.

I started taking my photography a bit more seriously when I got my Fujifilm S5700 just after Christmas '07 - before that I would just take the occasional shot with my Kodak CX 4230 Point and Shoot, like this:

After I started reading Photography Magazines, Books, and Websites, I learnt about the three main guidelines that are the foundations for most good photos, and they are:

Subject. All good photographs have an identifiable subject, and the clearer it is, and / or closer you are the better.

Composition. How we choose to arrange our subject in the frame - rule of thirds, lines, balance,foreground, middle, background, framing, avoiding distractions, portrait / landscape, etc.

Light. The most important factor. A poor subject and composition can be redeemed if taken in the most beautiful light (eg dusk / dawn), but even the most well composed and chosen subject can be ruined if the light is bad (eg bright sunny day at mid-day).

I'm not saying you can't take a great Photo by not following the guidelines, it's just that as you're learning (as I am), it's great to have points of reference that you can check off as you're lining up a shot to help you take nice pics.

So as I'm looking through the viewfinder I'm thinking,

"What's my subject, am I close enough, would this look better from another location?"

"What's my composition? Is my horizon straight? Is my horizon on one of the thirds? Is my subject on one of the intersections? Where's my foreground interest? Is there a nice tree / doorway where I can frame this image? Are there any lines like paths, shadows, fences, that can lead the viewer into the picture? Are there any distractions at the edge of the frame, creeping in to spoil it? Why is that telephone pole growing out of that persons head? How would this look if I get down low? I need to take a portrait image right after this landscape one."

"Is this the best time of day to be taking this Photo? Should I wait for the clouds to clear / go overcast? Should I expose for the sky or the land? Should I exposure bracket to make sure I get the right shot? Should I use a Polarizer / Grad to improve the light and help the camera? Where's the Sun, would the subject be better off back-lit, front-lit or from the side?"

All this might seem a little complicated, but if, as your using your camera, you remember "Subject, Composition, Light" as a short mantra, it'll help, and things will start to come naturally.

Lets look in a little more detail, starting with Subject.

Subject: Every Photo Needs One!

What's the subject of the above picture? Maybe the sky reflecting in the water, but it's a bit of a mess. I've done a HDR treatment, but to be honest the photo suffers because I didn't choose a specific subject and get close enough!

This is a bit better. You can clearly work out that the boat is the main subject, but maybe I should have zoomed in a bit closer. With digital being free, one option is to start "wide" where you get too much in the image, then zoom in, or walk closer, and take shots along the way, getting right into the detail.

How about this one:

No confusion about the subject!

Here's an OK photo of a tree:

But how about a bit closer?

Or even closer?

If your camera has got a macro function, or you've got a macro lens for your dSLR, flowers and plants can be great subjects.

The above picture is OK, but lets start getting in even closer, with pics like this:

or:

or:

So as you can see, it doesn't always matter which subject you choose, just as long as you get close enough to make it striking.

Composition: Laying Out Your Photos Like You Would A Painting

Someone once described Photography as "Fast Painting", and I think that's true. If you were to paint a nice landscape, you'd spend hours working out where you were going to place the subject, the horizon, the perspective, etc, whereas I almost always fall into the trap of snapping away without too much thought.

I'm getting better, and this has mainly been due to studying, and applying, simple rules of composition; the Rule of Thirds, Leading Lines and avoiding distractions.

Remember that picture of the Warship at the top of the page that I took with my old Point and Shoot?
Here's a different version of the same subject, but where some rules of composition have been applied:

Lets start with the Rule of Thirds. You just divide you photo into nine boxes. Where the horizontal lines are, is where you horizon should be, top or bottom, (if there is one). The main subject should be on one of the intersections of the lines.

The horizon is near the top horizontal, the warship is near the left-top intersection, the wreck sorta near the bottom right intersection.

How about this?

In this image, the horizon is on the bottom horizontal, the main body of the bridge near the bottom right intersection.

With the Rule of Thirds, you can also get a bit abstract:

or apply it to macro shots:

Use the Rule of Thirds in your Photographs, and it'll give them a certain ballance and look. The RoT's has been developed over hundreds of years, and reflects the way that our world is not often symetrical, we like looking at pictures with these traits.

However, there are times when you'll want to go symetrical, and the rule there is that if you're going symetrical, make sure you're very accurate, not "just off", because that'll look odd.

Foreground, middle and background. For the perfect landcape, you also need something near to catch the eye, then something a little further away, and finally an interesting background.

I find this really challenging. Most great landscapes follow this format, and I guess this photo is the closest I've got:

Now its time to look at Leading Lines. Leading lines help to guide the viewers eyes through the picture. Examples could be paths, roads, fences, shadows, rivers, etc. Horizontals and verticals are ok, diagonals are better, and curves can be brilliant.

Lets look at some examples.

So we've got the fence, the concrete, the line of the trees and the shoreline drawing your eye.

Nice curved leading lines in this one.

Traditional path shot:

Tractor tracks:

How about a spiral leading line?

Leading lines are everywhere - the challenge is to find them where they lead towards subjects (as often they don't in my pictures!). Next time you're shooting, have a look around and see what you can find.

Framing. This is where you try and get something to surrond the edge of your photograph - it often lends a sense of place, size, claustrophobia or focus. Here's some examples:

The trick with framing is just to have a real good scout of your location, you'll be surprised at what you can use, and how it can improve a photograph.

The frame doesn't have to completely surround the image, expieriment with different things and its another case of where you can shoot multiple takes of the same subject. Tree branches are good, walls, any type of overhang.

By blurring the frame, you can really give the viewer the feeling that they're "peering" into the shot, a hidden onlooker. (Use a large aperture such as F3.5 and below).

As you can see, frames can be incredibly powerful in adding a sense of depth to your photographs, next time you're out, just have a good look around and see what comes up.


Avoiding Distractions. These can ruin a good shot. You'll avoid most distractions be getting in close - but watch out for rubbish, poles growing out of peoples heads, wonky horizons or buildings, a bright reflection off a window, etc. Some can be sorted out in post processing with cloning or cropping, but if you take that extra minute or so before you take the picture to peer around the view-finder, you'll end up with a better shot. Normally a step to one side, or by dropping down onto your knees, you'll sort out the problem.

Viewing Angles. A good tip is to never take your photographs at your eye-level. Thats what everyone does. Drop down on one knee. Find a high vantage point. Lie on the ground, anything that will make the picture unusual (but probably give you a bad back!).

Don't use the common vantage point for a particular landscape. Find somewhere different, off the beaten path, and often that can just be a few feet away from where you're first standing. Its worth it.

For this shot I had to wait for the tide to go out a bit, then climb along a sea wall, trying to take the shot while I was hanging onto some old fencing, but it worked.

Light. The most important factor, but for me, the hardest. I take a lot of landscape shots, and despite my best efforts with filters and editing afterwards, no amount of work can really impove a photo taken in the wrong light.

The best time to take outside shots is around dawn and dusk. The light is a lot softer, and there's less of a difference between the brightness of the ground and the sky, so your camera can handle it better.

Shadows look better, tones are warmer, people aren't squinting. You can have the Sun behind your subject, for backlighting, or behind the camera for front-lighting. Everything just looks so much better.

You can get similair results on overcast days, or where there's sunshine but also clouds to make the Sun more difuse, but the best advice is to shoot during the "Golden Hours" - dusk and dawn.

During the day we can still play with light. Look at how the shadows fall off your subject. Try walking around the subject for different shadows that will give a better sense of depth. See how different angles produce shadows that emphasise texture on walls, trees and floors.

I'm struggling with taking pictures in the best light (I can't always get out of the house at 6.00am or 9.00 pm - kids!), but here's some examples of images taken in the morning / evening:

Taking shots in the morning can give your photographs a "colder" blue look, but you do get the benefit of any water normally being incredibly still:

Light, the most important thing to get right, but the hardest. Don't be put off taking photo's just because the light is wrong - it gives you chance to practice your subject and composition skills, just revisit those location when the light is perfect, and you'll end up with some wonderful captures,

Conclusion - Bringing It All Together!

Still here? Well done! I know this has been a long piece, but I didn't want to split up the three issues of Subject, Composition and Light. They're inter-related. A great image will be strong in all three departments - but that's the art of photography.

Think about your subject - are you close enough - is there a better view?

Think about your composition - use the rule of thirds, leading lines, fore, middle, background, and try different perspectives.

Think about the light - is it the best time of day? Can you get a better shot by moving a little so the shadows help you with depth and texture?

I hope this piece has helped you think a little more about your photography and maybe how it can be improved. The difference between a beginner and a master is 10,000 mistakes, so lets get shooting! (While chanting - Subject, Composition, Light!)

Thanks, Rob.